Paris Jackson Poses with Paul McCartney in Post-Beatles Michael Feud
By Chuck Arnold
Published March 4, 2024, 2:59 p.m. ET
Paris Jackson was sandwiched between surviving Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr in the front row of Stella McCartney’s Paris Fashion Week show.
Family Feud Resolved
The family feud between the Jacksons and the McCartneys is (apparently) no more.
Sitting Together in Fashion Week
Paris Jackson, the 25-year-old daughter of Michael Jackson, sat thisclose to Paul McCartney in the front row of the Stella McCartney show during Paris fashion week on Monday.
After MJ bought the rights to the Beatles catalog out from under his duet partner on “The Girl Is Mine” and “Say Say Say” in 1985, Jackson’s eldest child was squished between two of the Fab Four — Macca, 81, to her right and Ringo Starr, 83, to her left — at the Womenswear Fall/Winter 2024-2025 show by Sir Paul’s daughter Stella.
A Moment of Detente
It was the ultimate designer detente — amid a star-studded audience that also included singer-rapper M.I.A., model Ashley Graham, “The Good Place” star Jameela Jamil, British actresses Naomie Harris and Charlotte Rampling, and Barbara Bach, Starr’s Bond-girl wife.
Sharing her late father’s animal-rights activism and environmental consciousness, Jackson — a singer, model, and actress — gave her show of support for McCartney’s ready-to-wear collection promoting sustainable materials.
“It’s not just the animals,” Jackson told Women’s Wear Daily about the need for eco-friendly “change” in fashion.
“It’s the environment in general, it’s pretty much anything that’s not human about this planet. I support that [and] how do we make it a safer place.”
Jackson noted that McCartney doesn’t use any animal leather in her products, instead favoring alternative materials such as mushroom leather.
“It’s the vegan stuff and the anti-cruelty, but also just everything she’s doing,” she said of her fellow daughter of music royalty.
A Chilly Past
But things weren’t always so cool between the Jacksons and the McCartneys. In fact, they were downright chilly after MJ outbid Macca for the prized Beatles catalog, paying $47.5 million for the right to own and license their music.
“I think it’s dodgy to do something like that,” the Beatles legend once said. “To be someone’s friend, and then buy the rug they’re standing on.”
But after Jackson’s death at 50 in 2009, there were rumors that he might have left the storied catalog to McCartney in his will. Although that turned out not to be true, Sir Paul had softened his attitude toward his former friend in his passing: “I feel privileged to have hung out and worked with Michael,” he said.
And McCartney would finally get back the rights to all those Beatles classics — timeless tunes that he made with Starr and their late bandmates John Lennon and George Harrison — in 2017.
